1732 Les Miserables
Aunt Gillenormand renounced every effort, and pro-
nounced this acute diagnosis: ‘My father never cared very
much for my sister after her folly. It is clear that he detests
Ma rius.’
‘After her folly’ meant: ‘after she had married the colo-
nel.’
However, as the reader has been able to conjecture,
Mademoiselle Gillenormand had failed in her attempt to
substitute her favorite, the officer of lancers, for Marius. The
substitute, Theodule, had not been a success. M. Gillenor-
mand had not accepted the quid pro quo. A vacancy in the
heart does not accommodate itself to a stop-gap. Theodule,
on his side, though he scented the inheritance, was disgust-
ed at the task of pleasing. The goodman bored the lancer;
and the lancer shocked the goodman. Lieutenant Theodule
was gay, no doubt, but a chatter-box, frivolous, but vulgar;
a high liver, but a frequenter of bad company; he had mis-
tresses, it is true, and he had a great deal to say about them,
it is true also; but he talked badly. All his good qualities
had a defect. M. Gillenormand was worn out with hearing
him tell about the love affairs that he had in the vicinity of
the barracks in the Rue de Babylone. And then, Lieutenant
Gillenormand sometimes came in his uniform, with the tri-
colored cockade. This rendered him downright intolerable.
Finally, Father Gillenormand had said to his daughter: ‘I’ve
had enough of that Theodule. I haven’t much taste for war-
riors in time of peace. Receive him if you choose. I don’t
know but I prefer slashers to fellows that drag their swords.
The clash of blades in battle is less dismal, after all, than the